I wasn’t breastfed, I am quite tall abd by the way there is one study that cites that breastfed are shorter, not the other way around. As an adult I am quite healthy, but as a kid I was quite sick, always having stomach bug and ostitis. Breatfed babes do have less of these sickness and therefore don’t cramped up hospitals. If you and I had been breastfed, we’ve probably have few higher IQ points like it or not, but technology permits to show the fact that breastfed people have more going on inside their skulls, believe it or not. What I believe is that you are playing the same ugly game of bullying. Breastfeeding compare to an entire life, is nothing, yes I do blame mothers who want it all. Children are not made to go in daycare early in life either. I have a kid and one more in his way and I jnow plenty of kids of pro career feminists, and I am happy I’m fallowing my prime animalistic instinct. Have a good day, I’m sorry you have this anger inside of you.

Rubbish Daphne, Amanda has every right to correct you on this, she would be doing the public a disservice not to have pointed out the facts above. Just because you & your children were not breast fed obviously shows why you are so biased.
Any woman obviously can make her own decision, as long as she is well informed.

[Daphne – Actually, Annie, the only reason I mentioned that I and my sons were raised on infant formula milk is to illustrate the fact that infant formula milk does not stunt height, cause obesity, reduce intelligence or negatively affect health. Similarly, you will find that breast milk does not make babies taller, cleverer or generally healthier than infant formula milk, and the only reason they might be thinner is generally because they are undernourished and not because they are genetically thin. Ear infections? Sparing your baby the off-chance of a random ear infection that can be cured in a jiffy is no reason to breast-feed for six months to two years.]

You have done a lot of women and babies a disservice, considering how influential your blog is, and how many people hang onto your every word.

Your blog makes it sound as if formula is as good as – or even better than – breast milk. This is far from the truth. You have no knowledge on this subject, so I will attempt to shed some light on this for you.

First of all, you’re saying that it’s the children’s diet, which makes them fat. Fair point and I completely agree. However, the reason formula contributes to obesity is because it stretches the stomach. You see a newborn baby being given a full bottle, when the size of a newborn’s stomach is the size of a marble. A stretched stomach will eventually start wanting more food. Hence the obesity.

This is also what makes formula-fed babies sleep longer – compare it to when you’ve had a full meal and it makes you sleepy. By the way, this is also one way in which formula contributes to a rise in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: The babies fall into a deep sleep and don’t wake up. Breastfed babies wake more often, because formula is quickly and easily digested and they do not fall into such a perilous state of deep sleep.

Your children are not fat. Congratulations! I was formula-fed and I am not fat, either. Just because you and I (and your children) did not suffer from this side effect of formula, doesn’t mean that no one else on the planet has or will.
Formula is made from cow’s milk. Granted, it has been modified, but it hasn’t been modified enough to be as good as mother’s milk. Cow’s milk is tailored for calves, who need to grow quickly and run away from predators. Human milk is specifically tailored for growing infants’ brains: In fact, it is optimal if given in the first five years of life (yes, this is actually normal around most of the world, and it is not weird or even gross). This is also where the I.Q argument comes in. Once again, yes, your children are very clever, well done.

Formula is responsible for a lot of problems in modern-day society. These include (but are not limited to):

Ear infections;
Diabetes;
Obesity;
Leukaemia;
SIDS;
Allergies;
Coeliac disease;
Rheumatoid arthritis;
Multiple Sclerosis;
Dental caries;
Acute appendicitis.

That is just for the babies. Mothers reduce their risk of developing breast- and ovarian cancer through breastfeeding. A mother who breastfeeds for 8 years has practically no chance at all of getting breast cancer, and a mother who breastfeeds daughters, reduces their chance of developing breast cancer by 25%.

I am not saying that breastfed babies will never develop any health problems, but if they do, it’s usually to a lesser extent than formula-fed babies.

Why do you think politicians are getting involved in this? There are no bribes one can take from promoting breastfeeding, because it is free. However, one can take bribes from formula companies to promote their product. The reason politicians are getting involved, is because in the long run, it saves the government millions of Euros, due to a decrease in hospital admissions from all the diseases I mentioned.

Here are a few websites you may want to look at:

http://bit.ly/1pMokkf
http://bit.ly/1yZlA9r
http://bit.ly/UXrubt
http://www.llli.org/

[Daphne – On this subject, Amanda, I think you should learn the value of minding your own business, which is exactly what my argument is here. Any woman who is grown up enough to have taken the decision to have a baby, who holds down a job and runs a household, who has long years of education behind her, is perfectly capable of deciding for herself whether her baby is going to be fed on human milk or formula milk. To suggest otherwise is offensive to women and deeply insulting. The only way a grown woman with an education and a life of responsibility can be browbeaten into feeling doubt in her own judgement is with these constant campaigns and with a veritable onslaught of bullying when she is at her most vulnerable. The purpose of my writing about this is to reassure women that their judgement is best and that it is perfectly all right to tell the midwives and the nurses and even family members to back off and mind their own business. As for not knowing about the subject, please spare me your insults. I know more about it than most through direct experience. Once more: learn the value of minding your own business. Despite some evidence to the contrary, Malta is not a Third World country.]

Times of Malta’s file photo for ‘Mater Dei’ shows a woman with a massive arse, in leggings, leaning against the ‘Sptar Mater Dei’ sign, smoking away.

Jiena ghaddejt minn zmien difficli sakemm irnexxieli nitghallem il-latching sew. Bkejt pero sibt sapport kbir mill-breastfeeding clinic u l-midwives. Illum tista tigbed il-halib u titma t-tarbija mill-flixkun. Il-mara trid tara c-cirkostanzi taghha imma hija haga sabiha li tinkoragixxi xi haga tajba. Jiena nipretendi li gurnalista tajba ghandha taghmel ricerka u tikwota studji xjentifiki fuq it-tema qabel ma xxandar artiklu li hu bbazat fuq opinjoni personali.

[Daphne – ‘Nitghallem il-latching sew’. I love it.]